I have an old Fujitsu 3gb hard disc I dug out the other day that I want to use on a test system, the only problem is 1% of the drives blocks are dead and its proving a real pain. Ive read that some manufactuers provide software to scan and attempt to fix the drive but I can't find anything for Jujistu. Is there anything I can do or shall I just throw the drive away?
if it has bad sectors, there is no proper way to 'fix' them, but some manufacturer utilities will allow you to automatically partition around them. There's a few linux apps that will allow you to do this, but as far as windows utilities go for this purpose, i'm clueless . . . [EDIT] I missed the fact that it was a 3GB disk, hardly worth messing about with is it? i mean, what can you fit on it that's worth keeping, don't say work or i'll have to castrate you for putting important files on a damaged disk it'll be dirt slow aswell compared to modern drives [/EDIT]
You can get 40GB drives for £20 second hand. It's really not worth trying to salvage a 3GB drive at any expense, but you could try Hitachi's drive program - I'm not sure if it can partition around bad sectors but it works on all drives IIRC. If, in the end, it does prove irreperable, you could have some fun with it. If you've never seen the inside of a drive before, take it apart and install Windows on it with the top cover off - it'll work for an hour (or maybe more - I had one that worked for about 3 days running with the cover off), and it's quite hypnotic to watch the arm hopping all over the platters because it moves extremely fast.
oooh, make some kind of hard drive speaker, afrotech style http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/hdspeakers/hdspeakers.htm
Oohhh I remember (not so fondly) when I took apart my first HD at around 10yrs old. "Ooh these magnets are really strong, lets see what I can stick them to..."
Do a low-level format. Or sometimes known as a Zero Fill, sometimes works. And it seems to work a lot better with older drives, I've brought around 5 or 6 dead 4gig drives back that way, and they still work well even now
I use a stack of them to hang a hat from my wall, Im suprised they didnt pull out the drywall screws yet. I remember dropping one on the floor and my dog picked it up with her collar, stuck to her for weeks before I finally removed it. Fun little things.
